Ponting sizing up England players

Ricky Ponting, in Portugal, has been speaking about who he “fears” the most in this summer’s Ashes series. OK, so “fears” is probably journalistic hype, but having never actually played against either Strauss or Flintoff, he’d be right to be cautious.

“I thought they`d pick him for Bangladesh because they`d want him to get some Test cricket under his belt before playing us,” Ponting said of Pietersen, whose first class average is more than 50.

“I expect to see him and I have a pretty good idea of how he is going to play.

“I have watched a bit of him playing in South Africa.

“And I have had good chat to Chris Cairns about him when we were in New Zealand because Chris played with him in England.”

I’m still unsure about the decision not to include Pietersen. Yes, he’s not made many runs – but the situation as it now stands is Pietersen will probably make his Test debut against the Australians. Wouldn’t it have been more benefitial for him to have a net against the Banglas, and get off the mark? Oh well, the decision’s been made now.